Glossary
State Root
The Merkle root of the entire blockchain state, embedded in every block header — proves every account, balance, contract code, and storage slot at that block.
Ethereum stores its global state in a Modified Merkle Patricia Trie keyed by account address. The trie's root hash — the state root — is included in every block header, committing the chain to the complete state after that block's transactions.
Light clients verify proofs of any account or storage value against this single 32-byte commitment. Stateless clients, sharding, and ZK rollups all build on top of the state-root structure.